Microsoft To Test Windows on '$100 Laptop'

Microsoft Corp. will begin testing a version of Windows XP in January on the
"$100 laptop" from One Laptop Per Child.

It has taken nearly a year of engineering to get the bulky operating system
to run on the low-cost XO computer, Microsoft said. The XO uses flash memory
instead of a hard drive and offers less storage space than most mainstream PCs.

In May, The Associated Press reported Microsoft's
concern that the memory issue and other technical hurdles would stymie efforts
to port Windows to the XO, which was originally designed to run a free Linux-based
operating system.

The software maker has released Windows XP for other flash-based, low-cost
computers, such as Intel Corp.'s Classmate PC, which has twice as much storage
space. For the XO, Microsoft said it has reworked the operating system so it
can start up and run from an extra memory card that plugs into the laptop's
guts.

James Utzschneider, a general manager in Microsoft's Unlimited Potential group,
said Windows XP for the XO won't be ready for widespread use until at least
the second half of 2008. And, he said, technical hurdles were only part of the
reason.

"It's been a fast-moving target for us to design towards," he said.
"We only had a handful of machines in the hands of our engineers in the
last year. That, and fact they were still making hardware changes as recently
as August, it slowed us down."